Stolen

Chapter One

Ember

It was an ambush from the beginning. Carrson and I were walking to my dorm room like we had done a thousand times after training. Carrson was going over the session and questioning why I had chosen to fight Knox in the square again.  After everything Knox had said to me the night before, even I was not completely sure why, but I gave him the same answer that I always did, "If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best." It was clear by the look on his face that he wasn't satisfied with this answer. Something with him had changed in the last few weeks. Carrson had grown possessive and obsessed with everything I was doing. Why he couldn't understand what I wanted I would never know. A small part of me believed that he just didn't want to see it.

Everyone at Academy One knew that Carrson had feelings for me, he never tried to hide them. Maybe this was my fault. For years he'd been my only friend but now... things were different. I stopped him outside of my dorm room, putting my palm against his chest. This time I was not going to let him come inside. I was going to tell him everything. He needed to know about Knox and this all had to end. But, I never got the chance. From behind me the door swung open and a pair of black tentacles reached out from the darkness and pulled me inside. The darkness swallowed everything until there was nothing left.

Carrson

It had been two hours since Ember was taken. Breaking into the academy was something no one had ever done before. Chaos had exploded within the walls of Academy One as recruits rushed to their stations and alarms blared. Everyone was acting like the good little soldiers they were trained to be. I hated them all. When it came down to it, none of them would survive this war. They just weren't built for it. I sprinted across the academy and into the surveillance headquarters. There was a room full of monitors with a large screen projecting a map of the building hanging on one wall. The specials were going wild tracking down each and every recruit still active in the building. Hundreds of red dots flitted around the monitor screens as they tried to identify if anyone was gone. Each of them had been assigned different groups of recruits to locate. Two hours and they still didn't know it was her. Rhett was standing by himself monitoring a screen in the back of the room that no one else seemed to care about. There was a cold sweat rolling down the back of his neck. When his blue eyes found me, I knew that he figured out that she was gone. He grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair and closed the gap between us quickly.

"Ember," he breathed.

I nodded to him, "We have to go." 

Rhett did not need any more convincing than that. He took off in a run towards the east side of the building where the weapons specialists were gathering. This was where I was supposed to report after the incident took place.

Recruits were separated by specials. Surveillance, weapons, tracking, and diplomacy. They each had their own jobs to do when an alert was raised. The surveillance specialists were tasked with locating and accounting for every active recruit placed at Academy One. They kept watch over the academies and the cities that surrounded them. They looked for breaches in the wards that could let the darkness inside. The weapons specialists were guards. They fortified the academy and the city and ensured no one would be allowed in or out without permission. They were issued weapons and were skilled in defense. They were the front line of the war, the first to be sent out to die. Tracking specialists were tasked with finding the enemies. They could locate a pin at the bottom of a river, nothing could hide from them inside of the city. But no one had been able to track inside of the darkness yet. The diplomacy specials were only there to dictate. They were the lucky ones. They were entitled and spoiled. Most of them never even tasting war but deciding which ones of us were insignificant enough to die in it. Most of the recruits only gained one special during their first round of training. Rhett had gained two, surveillance and weapons, so no one batted an eye when we joined the weapons specialists at their designated spot. They were still awaiting orders. There was a soft murmur through the crowd as people gossiped about the alarm and what could have happened. They were sheep just being led to the slaughter. Rhett pushed his way to the front of the crowd, and I followed suit. The command leaders of the weapons specialists were surrounding a table with their backs to the rest of us. They were deciding how to proceed and what to do. Seconds ticked by like hours and I found myself growing tired of the waiting. Just make a damn decision already. 

Knox was the first person to step in front of the specialists. Just seeing his face made my blood boil. There had never been a more self-absorbed pitiful excuse for a human than Knox Rivers. He thought he was better than everyone else because he was the only recruit to ever earn three specials in the first round of training. Rhett worshiped him like the rest of the academy, but I could see right through it all. He was nothing. 

"Ember Adams was taken approximately two hours ago from a portal through her dorm room. This is the highest alert, and it is of the utmost importance that she is located quickly and without harm. We believe her life is in danger." Knox addressed the specialist before him. 

When he said her name, I wanted to die. This was the first time that I had ever seen him look physically unwell. Was he scared? The idea brought me joy. 

"Your positions have been assigned. Locate your group command and prepare yourself. We will do whatever it takes to bring her back." Knox turned his back on the crowd quickly, leaning heavily on the table that had been behind him. 

The weapons specialists began pairing off into their assigned groups. Rhett ignored everyone and made a quick line to Knox. He put a consoling hand on his back, "We're going to find her." he whispered only loud enough for us to hear.

"How did you know it was Ember?" I asked. Breaking whatever moment they were having. Knox met my gaze head on, any ounce of fear that he was feeling before was replaced with sheer anger. He turned to face Rhett like I had not spoken a single word, "She's in the darkness. We're deploying scouts in one hour, will you come with us?"

"Yes." Rhett said without any hesitation.

"Damn It, I'm right here!" I yelled, pounding my fist down on the table. "Don't treat me like I'm not! I was there when they took her and if you're going after her, I'm not staying behind!"

"Well, you're not coming so why don't you do as you're told and find your group commander." Knox said coldly.

Rhett tried to intervene, but it was too late. I was around the table and face to face with Knox before he could stop me, "What the hell is your problem?"

"You follow Ember around like a pathetic little puppy dog and you expect me to believe someone was able to portal into her room and take her and there was nothing you could do to stop it? Did you even try, or did you just watch it happen?" Knox was gritting his teeth as anger radiated off of him. Why was he this worked up about Ember? A girl he loathed and never missed an opportunity to tell. Why did he even care that she was gone? Before the argument could go any further, Rhett stepped between us.

"We can't do this. Every second we waste is another second where she could be hurt."

He was always the levelheaded one. Knox nodded his agreement and for a moment, the fear was back in his eyes.

"The weapons specialists are going to deploy at dawn, but we can't get permission to go into the shadow realm. The furthest they are allowing us are border towns."

"We need a tracker." I suggested as calmly as I could, "Someone that can pinpoint her exact location and then we can go get her."

"No," Rhett argued, "trackers have never been able to locate anything inside of the shadow realm. If she was still in the city, yeah sure but Knox said she's not."

I was becoming agitated again, "How do we know she's not in the city? Simply because he thinks she's not?"

The way that Knox looked up at me I could tell he was using every ounce of self-control he had not to engage. Rhett glanced nervously at Knox and from their shared exchange I could tell I was being kept out of the loop. Knox took a deep steadying breath before sharing.

"Ember and I are connected..." he confessed, "I don't know why or how, but I can feel her. I didn't ask for this. Hell, when she first came here, I would have given anything to not feel this way. But she and I... our souls are bound to each other. I need to find her." His confession knocked me back. I found myself standing there dumbfounded and recounting every time that Ember would disappear, every training session where she would choose him over me, every single time Knox stood in the way of what we had. Because he thought their souls were bound to each other? I couldn't stop the rage that bubbled over and before I knew it, my fist had connected with his jaw.